You swallow down the lump in your throat, pull the hoodie on, and drop the blanket at your feet.
"Hey!" One of the people in bio-hazard suits is staring at you. "What are you doing? You can't take that!"
You ignore them, take Izzie's hand, and lead her in the vague direction of Addie's last howl.
You wind through the den, dodging around the humans, and pushing open doors until eventually you smell them. Addie's scent is fresh and warm in your nose. Minjo's is harder to pick up. You can smell JiAn too. And Nik. And... oh.
Hungry.
"Who's that?" Izzie asks.
You don't answer. Instead, you follow the scent trail through the building until you come to Minjo and Alek's room. The door is ajar. You take a deep breath and enter.
The second you're through the door Addie rushes towards Izzie and scoops her up. "Izzie! Where were you? Don't run off like that."
"But—"
"Never run off like that," Addie growls. "Your grandma would skin me alive if you were lost."
Izzie rests her head on Addie's shoulder without any more protest.
JiAn and Nik are sitting in the corner, quietly sharing a packet of chips. JiAn's clothes are torn from the shift.
Minjo is lying on the bed, holding a torn, puffy coat close to her chest.
Hungry.
It's a tiny howl. But it's coming from the bundle. As you watch, a small, pink fist protrudes from the jacket and swipes sleepily at Minjo's hair. Baby. It's a baby. Her baby. The baby.
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Minjo smiles a small, sad smile. "You look surprised, Gideon Mercer. Don't you know more babies are born on the full moon than any other day of the month?"
"It's..."
"He," she corrects you.
"He's..." a werewolf. You can smell the hot, earthy tang in the air. You can hear his howls.
Hungry.
"...hungry," you say instead.
As if in response, the baby lets out a small, pitiful wail. Minjo makes a consoling noise and pulls her shirt up so he can feed.
"What's his name?" you ask, to fill the painful quiet in the room.
"Aleksander," Minjo says softly.
The weight of that name hits you like a ton of bricks. You bow your head.
Addie puts Izzie with the other children, scolds her again for running off, and walks up to you. A quick exchange of looks is all it takes for you to know she wants to talk to you, in private. You follow her out of the room and into the hallway beyond. She pushes the door closed with her knuckles.
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"The police are covering this up," she says matter of factly.
"I noticed," you reply.
She starts to pace. "Why would they do that? Why would they stop this news from getting out? If they let word spread the hunters would be here within hours. They could strike while we're still weak from the fight. Instead, they're keeping everything quiet. Why?"
"Someone's paying them to," you suggest.
"Who?" she presses.
You don't know.
"I hate this," she mutters. "There is someone powerful here. Someone we don't know, pulling the strings."
"Or maybe the government just doesn't want the average person to realise how much goes bump in the dark," you say. "Maybe this is just about stopping mass panic."
"Maybe," she cedes. "But... I don't know. And I hate not knowing. There is too much we still don't know about this place." She pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. "We should never have come here. We should have left when we had the chance. We should leave now."
Something black and ugly surges through you. Something like anger, but not the sort of anger you're used to. Not fiery and fierce but painful, sick, and wrong.
"Fuck you," you say.
Addie turns to you in surprise.
"What did you just say to me?"
"Fuck you," you say it again. "Terry died defending this territory."
She grimaces. "Terry's death was—"
"No," you growl. "Don't you dare say it. Don't say this was our fault for not running away. This is our territory. We fought to defend it. Died defending it. We're not leaving. Not now. Not after everything we've lost defending our right to be here."
"Gideon Mercer," she whispers. "We're wolves. We belong in the forest. The cities belong to the humans, and the vampires, even the witches... but not us."
"Not anymore," you say, just as quiet.
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